The THES Diary

Conference mouthful

Delegates to the Higher Education Funding Council for England's annual conference last week were racking their brains over a new name for Heroic, the Higher Education Reach Out to Industry and the Community fund - or so it used to be called. The Department of Trade and Industry, which is putting in a fraction of the total cash, decided it wanted business in there too. Unfortunately no one thought to tell the after-dinner speaker, Alex Stephenson of the West Midlands regional development agency. When he asked his listeners to remind him of the name of the outreach fund, silence reigned. Presumably HEROIBC was just too hard to pronounce at that stage in the evening.

Photo inopportunity

Vice-chancellors were also up in arms about proposals for the University for Industry, as outlined by its chairman, Lord Dearing. They privately described the plans as "a mess". They may have a point: the photograph on the cover of the UFI development plan is upside down.

First class to nowhere

Civil servants are concerned about ever getting science minister Lord Sainsbury onto a train again. First he was stuck behind the royal train on one recent journey, then he was spotted being evicted from premier class, along with Lord Dearing, HEFCE chairman Sir Michael Checkland and HEFCE chief executive Brian Fender on the Loughborough to London service. After finally settling himself in his proper first-class seat, he found the train was delayed for more than an hour.

Pay Pounds 40, win Pounds ?..

Academics are eagerly awaiting the Bett report, now expected at the end of May, to find out whether it will boost their pay packets. But the only detail to emerge so far leaves them out of pocket. They will have to fork out Pounds 40 to buy a copy from Her Majesty's Stationery Office.

Date with an eclipse

One excited academic is doing his best to ensure that sky-watchers who have booked special flights to watch the total eclipse of the sun this August do not miss it. John Baruch, head of cybernetics at the University of Bradford, has written to transport minister John Prescott and ex-European transport commissioner Neil Kinnock asking them to prioritise charter flights on the day. He is worried that "eclipse specials" will not get off the ground for the crucial two or three minutes viewing time unless schedules are juggled.